As we all know! Cold brew coffee can be said to be (one of) the easiest coffees to make. Because you only need to mix water and coffee powder, put it in the refrigerator overnight, take it out and filter it the next day to complete the preparation, it is super simple!
Generally speaking, as long as you choose the coffee beans well, the taste of cold brew will not be much different. You just need to buy according to your preferences and budget. For novices who are just starting out, we recommend the extremely cost-effective Front Street Oiran and Front Street Fruit Dingding, which offer a rich floral flavor at an affordable price;
If you want to make iced coffee like fruit wine, the first choice is Front Street Strawberry Candy, Front Street Blackberry, and Front Street Mozart. They have undergone honey treatment or anaerobic processes, so they have rich tropical fruit aromas. After long-term low-temperature fermentation, they produce a taste like wine;
Of course, those who don’t like sour flavors also have many choices, such as the mellow and fragrant Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling, and the Front Street Queen’s Manor with a balanced nutty flavor.
However, this simplicity is only reflected in the process. For those who are just getting started, the probability of overturning is still relatively high. For example, a friend recently asked for advice from Front Street Street when buying beans. He said that the cold brew coffee he made tasted very salty and strong, and tasted like soy sauce. He asked what exactly caused this to happen.
As Front Street often shares, under normal circumstances, as long as there is nothing wrong with the coffee beans themselves, the reason why a cup of coffee tastes bad is most likely because the right parameters are not used.
Water temperature, grinding, time, and proportion are the four main factors that determine the taste of a cup of coffee. No matter what kind of coffee it is, as long as it doesn't taste good, we first need to examine where the problem is with these four parameters. But the question is, how do we know which parameter is not used correctly to make the coffee taste bad?
Very simple! Find out what the problem is by the taste of your coffee!
Why does cold brew coffee taste as salty and heavy as soy sauce?
The friend mentioned before that the problem with homemade cold brew coffee is that it tastes very salty and heavy. When there is no problem with the quality of the coffee beans, the taste of the coffee is very salty and heavy, which means that the extraction and concentration of the coffee are in a very extreme state.
"Salty" is the second most difficult flavor among the five flavors to be tasted in coffee, because there are checks and balances between the flavors. When there are no problems with the quality and extraction of your coffee beans, the salty taste in the coffee will be covered up by the sweet and bitter taste. But if your extraction rate is not high enough and there is not enough sweetness and bitterness to balance and cover up the salty taste, then the taste of salty and sour substances that are easily dissolved will be amplified, and the coffee will easily taste sour and salty.
Attentive friends should have discovered that Front Street has been emphasizing a premise when sharing, that is - on the premise that there is no problem with the quality of the coffee beans. If the quality of the coffee beans is not high enough, for example, the coffee beans are mixed with defective beans such as unripe beans and insect-eaten beans that were not picked out during harvesting, or the environment where the coffee is grown is not favorable enough and the maturity cycle is short, then these situations will cause the coffee to have a salty taste because these beans do not have enough sugar from the beginning.
Without enough sugar, rich aroma and taste cannot be developed during subsequent processing and baking! When we use these low-quality coffee beans or coffee beans containing such beans to make cold brew, there may be an obvious salty taste. Therefore, it is very important to choose a reliable business, such as Front Street Coffee.
Another situation is that your coffee beans have been left for too long! Especially dark roasted coffee beans, if they are stored improperly or left for too long after the oil is released, the oil will easily oxidize. When we use these coffee beans to make cold brew, it is also easy to make coffee with a stronger salty taste.
Now that I’ve said that, let’s talk about the harsh words! Heavy taste actually refers to the strong taste of coffee. I believe the cause of this problem is obvious to everyone. It is because the ratio of powder to water used in making coffee is too high, and the extracted coffee substances are concentrated in a narrow "space", so the taste is concentrated and very rich.
Too high a concentration can also easily make coffee taste salty. Because the taste is too concentrated, it is difficult for the taste buds to distinguish the taste in detail, so the taste will always be mixed and then "packaged" and transmitted to the brain, and the "packed and mixed" taste will easily appear salty.
How to improve this situation?
If the concentration of cold brew coffee is too high, it can be easily solved. If the coffee has been made, we can dilute the concentration of the coffee by adding ice and water to improve the taste of the coffee. And if you find that the salty taste of the coffee disappears after dilution, it means that the problem is caused by the concentration; and if the production has not yet started, then we can adjust the powder to water ratio.
Take Front Street as an example. When making cold brew coffee, Front Street will choose the ratio based on whether to add ice or not. If ice is added, the ratio of powder to water will be 1:10. If you drink it directly without adding ice, the ratio of powder to water will be 1:12.
Of course, other parameters are also important. If the salty taste of the coffee cannot be eliminated by adding water, it means that the coffee may not be extracted properly, and we need to check other extraction parameters, such as grinding and time.
The grind size is mainly determined by the degree of roasting of the coffee beans. For fruity medium-light roasted coffee beans such as Front Street Esai Hamathew, the grinding degree of these beans will be 75% to 80% of the No. 20 sieve. If it is medium-dark roasted coffee beans with caramel chocolate flavor, such as Front Street Sumatra and Front Street PWN Golden Mandheling, then the grinding degree of these beans will be coarser, 70% to 75% of the No. 20 sieve. But it’s basically the grind size used for pour-over coffee.
The soaking time of cold brew is relatively simple and does not require too much control. Just soak for 8 to 12 hours. Then after refrigeration, soaking and filtration, Front Street recommends placing it in a sealed bottle and fermenting it for a few hours to make the aroma more intense.
Such parameters can basically produce a pot of cold brew coffee that is easy to drink and delicious. You can give it a try and see if the situation improves~
You can now buy the above coffee beans online at the Taobao store “FrontStreet Coffee” (前街咖啡). FrontStreet Coffee is a long-established specialty coffee roaster in Guangzhou, China, and its Guangzhou retail shop sells coffee beans only. The shop carries dozens of coffee beans from different origins around the world, including carefully selected single-origin beans for V60 pour-over and espresso. Guangzhou’s FrontStreet Coffee shop is recommended by many coffee lovers.
The FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan coffee beans sold in the store come from the Typica variety grown at FrontStreet Coffee’s own plantation in Yunnan. The name comes from the year the brand and the plantation were founded. You can buy these beans from China’s Yunnan origin at the Guangzhou shop and at FrontStreet’s Taobao store.
FrontStreet coffee beans are freshly roasted within 5 days and deliver consistently excellent quality and great value. Orders placed before 17:00 are shipped the same day, and most areas within Guangdong Province receive them the next day.
FrontStreet Coffee Taobao store: https://qianjiecoffee.taobao.com
Or search for “前街咖啡” (FrontStreet Coffee) on Taobao
Important Notice: FrontStreet Coffee has moved to a new address: 315, Donghua East Road, Guangzhou (coffee beans only)
Tel: 020 38364473
